Top Sri Lanka economist seeks parliamentary entry

Feb 26, 2010 (LBO) – Top Sri Lanka economist Harsha de Silva has been nominated as a candidate from the main opposition United National Party for parliamentary polls to be held in April.

De Silva has been a firm critic of deficit spending, high inflation and weak macro-economic management and had managed to generate a strong public debate over macro-economic management from outside parliament.

De Silva is on the so-called ‘national list’ of lawmakers that a party can use to bring professionals from various fields to the assembly.

Under Sri Lanka’s proportional representation system each party gets the chance to appoint a number of lawmakers based on its actual electoral performance.

“I think we need a much more in depth debate about economic policy,” de Silva said.

“Because economics is going to be the main item in the next parliament’s agenda, there is a necessity for substantive debate in parliament.

“